Nothing Gold Can Stay
by The weasel is MINE XP
Summary: What if the Curtis' had one more brother? Just how much would that change the real story? (I PROMISE the story's better than this summary!) Warnings: Character Death, Brotherly love. It is NOT a yaoi, but it was going to be... Please read and review! -MnM


Hey ya'll! :) I know I've got PLENTY of other stories i need to be updating, but i wrote this as a school project and just HAD to upload it! I hope ya'll enjoy this!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own The Outsiders!

Warnings: Character death, and if you squint REAL hard, boy's love! Lolz i had intended to edit this into more of a BL story for FF, but then i thought not many people would like to read a PonyxOCC yaoi... So, if you actually took anytime to read that, thank you, and on with the story!

P.S: It IS a one-shot!(Unless i get convinced otherwise)

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death

There were shouts and the pounding of feet, and the Socs jumped up and left me lying there, gasping. I lay there and wondered what in the world was happening - people were jumping over me and running by me and I was too dazed to figure it out. Then someone had me under the armpits and was hauling me to my feet. It was Darry.

"Pony!"

Lou hollered then quickly came over, pulling me from Darry's arms, and shaking me back and forth, checking me up and down for any serious wounds.

"Are you okay Pony?! They didn't hurt ya' too bad, did they?"

That was so like Lou, always fretting over the littlest things when it came to me… I guess it's cause I'm his little brother and he feels like he's gotta protect me from everything.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

He gave me that look, the one that said he didn't quite believe what I was sayin'.

"Honestly Lou, I'm all right! Just a few scratches, that's all."

I finally noticed Soda was standing there as he gave a snort.

"Scratches? You're bleeding like a stuck pig!"

Confused, I put the handkerchief handed to me by Soda up to my head, only for it to come back heavily soaked with red…

"Okay, so I guess it's a little more than a scratch…"

I let out a sigh as I knew what would come next. Overprotective brother mode, in 3, 2, 1, here we go.

"Ya' think, Ponyboy?! We got to get you home right now! We gotta patch you up and stop that bleeedin' before you die of blood loss!"

Enter Soda.

"Lou, yah, there's a lot of blood, but not nearly enough to die from blood loss, plus it makes Pone look tough." He gave me a smirk.

Lou tightened his hold on my legs, having already decided I shouldn't walk and needed a piggyback ride. I swear, Lou has been this way ever since I found him in that ally 5 years ago.

Soda and I were heading home from the store, it was around noon-ish since it was Saturday and there was no school. Walking past one of the many allies, I saw what seemed to be a big ball of cloth leaning up against the wall, but then it moved. My curiosity over took me, and releasing Soda's hand, I went to investigate. Soda wordlessly followed me, eyebrows crinkled up in a confused fashion. Crouching down in front of the ball, I started poking it, only to have the ball groan. Blinking in confusion, I started to pull off what I assume was a blanket to reveal a little boy who looked to be about my age. I could hear Soda let out a soft gasp, he obviously hadn't expected that…well honestly, neither had I. Looking over the boy, you could see his clothes were torn and dirty, and most of the skin showing was bruised. His hair was long and ratted; it curled slightly at the end, hiding his eyes. Trying to wake him up, I proceeded to poke him, only to get another groan. Deciding that he wasn't going to wake up any time soon, I maneuvered him onto my back - he was shockingly frail - and gave him a piggy-back ride the rest of the way home, not even looking back to see if Soda was following me, I knew he would. I walked into the house, heading straight up to my room. Darry was sitting dumbfounded, turning his confused look toward Soda when he arrived. Soda, not knowing my reasons either, simply shrugged his shoulder and went upstairs after setting the groceries in the kitchen. By the time Darry and Soda reached my room, I had already laid the kid on my bed, taken off his shirt, and was attempting to tend to his wounds. Darry walked closer, trying to figure out what had happened, but came up short.

"Pony? What're you doing?"

Jumping slightly, having been in silence for so long, I turned to him.

"I'm tryin' to treat his wounds, what does it look like I'm doing?" Frowning at my sarcasm, Darry continued to question me.

"And why are you treating his wounds?"

"Because he's hurt." Darry's frown deepened as he became annoyed by my evasiveness.

"Who. Is. He. Pony?" His words were choppy, with his barley restrained anger seeping into them.

"I dunno."

"What do you mean you don't know?! Pony -" His eyes were blazing now, and frankly I was scared. Thank the heavens Soda decided to step in.

"He means he don't know Darry. Pony found him collapsed in an ally on our way back from the store."

That seemed to calm him down a bit, Darry started rubbing his temples as he always does when he's stressed, as if it will prevent a headache from coming. Releasing a sigh to further calm himself down, he grabbed the first aid kit from my hands.

"Give me that." Letting a small smile settle on my lips, I stepped back and let Darry examine him. Turning to us, he pointed at Soda first.

"You. Go get a small towel and a bowl of water." He turned to me. "And you, go find him some clean clothes to wear, he's about your size." As I went off to grab some clothes, I heard him mumble about how mom and dad are going to freak when they find out. I couldn't help but silently agree.

Returning to Darry's side with clothes in my hands, I watched as his finished patching up the last wound. Whatever had happened to the boy, I felt sorry for him. He looked so young, but to already have to bear such scars, it just wasn't right. Setting the clothes on the bed next to the small boy, I helped Darry sit him up while Soda put on the clean shirt, then did the same with the pants. Pulling a blanket over him, I followed my brothers out of the room and quietly shut the door. Now all we have to do is wait for mom and dad to get home…

We, meaning Darry and Soda, explained to our parents what had happened, and being the kind people that they are, were quick to accept our new family member. It was a few days after that, a Tuesday afternoon I think, when we were all having dinner and suddenly there was a big crash from upstairs. Running up to check on our newly found brother, only to find him hiding in a corner with the blanket pulled over him - much like I had found him in the alley. Approaching him slowly, I kneeled down in front of him and carefully pulled the blanket off, not wanting to frighten him further. Sitting there was the same small boy, but his eyes were open and glossy with repressed tears, he was also biting his lip to restrain scared whimpers, and his shoulders were shaking slightly with the effort it took to do all this.

"Who - who a-are y-y-you?" He looked so tense, it pained me to see how scared he looked of people, people he didn't even know, like he just assumed everyone was bad…somethin' real awful must 'ave happened to 'im.

"My name's Ponyboy Curtis, nice to meet you! What's your name?" I gave him a soft smile, hoping it would comfort him a bit. He started at be a little confused, but it seemed that he had calmed down slightly.

"Ponyboy? That sure is a funny name… I like it though; it's got a nice ring to it! Ponyboy." He giggled, apparently finding my name amusing. Although I don't really like people teasing me about my name, I don't think he meant any harm by it… Grinning wider, I decided to introduce the rest of the family. Pointing at each one, starting with Darry, I made sure to tell him what he could call them.

"The big tall one there is Darrel, but we call him Darry! The one next to him is Sodapop," He gave another giggle, "but we prefer to call him Soda or Pepsi-cola, whatever you prefer. Then next to him is my dad, you just call him dad. Next to dad, is mom. Same with her, just call her mom!" He was staring at Darry, obviously amazed at how big he was.

"Hello…" He gave a small shy smile.

"You never gave us your name."

"Oh… My name's Louis, but please don't call me that…" He shuddered a bit, as if he didn't like his own name… "Just call me Lou!" I noticed he didn't give a last name.

"Well Lou, welcome to the family! If you would like, you could even take up our last name and become a Curtis!" It was my dad who greeted him, rubbing his hair affectionately, giving Lou a giant grin. Lou couldn't help but grin back. That was just the kind of person my dad was, Soda got that trait from him. Suddenly my dad's face got serious, and he gripped Lou's shoulder reassuringly. "Now son, you don't have to tell us what happened in your past, it doesn't matter now, you get to start a new life here… But if you ever want to talk about it, all of us are more than willing to listen, and we will not judge." Lou nodded his head in understanding.

"Thank you." My dad's grin was back full force.

"Well now that that's settled, let's get you some food! You must be starving. I mean you _have _been asleep for almost 3 days!" Lou looked surprised, not knowing he had been asleep for that long, and right on cue his stomach rumbled, causing a faint blush to rise on his checks. I chuckled and then grabbed his hand to lead him to the kitchen; he kept a tight hold all the way there.

It took a couple weeks for Lou to fully open up to the rest of the family, he was already quite comfortable with me, and told me things he wouldn't tell the others, but eventually he told us all what had happened to him that day. Turns out he was adopted into an abusive family and one day he just couldn't take it anymore, so he ran away and that's when I found him. He also informed us that he was actually 11, closer to Soda's age than mine, but was small because he didn't eat much with his adoptive parents. He didn't trust them.

When Lou turned 14, he hit a huge growth spurt, and now at 16 is 6'5" and still growing. He has a swimmers build, so although he's taller than Darry, he's not nearly as buff. Not to say that he's not strong, cause he is! He can pick me up like I weigh nothing more than a pillow! He has somewhat shaggy black hair with faint red highlights that he got for his 15th birthday. His hair still curled down in front of his eyes and that's the way he liked it. It's really a pity though 'cause his eyes are beautiful. They're icy in color, but hold so much warmth in them. I think the reason Lou likes to hide his eyes is because you can easily read his emotions through them. Lou is an open book if you can get a look into his eyes.

"Pony?"

Snapping back to reality, I noticed Soda was giving me a slightly worried and confused look. I guess I was zoning out…

"See! He's unresponsive! That's proof enough that he's suffering from extreme blood loss!" I leaned my chin on Lou's shoulder and blew a puff of air into his ear, causing him to jump slightly, having thought I was unconscious.

"I'm fine Lou. But ya know, because you and Soda have just been standing here, I've lost more blood than I would have if you would've just taken me home and not argued about it…" His eye's widened comically and I couldn't help but chuckle. That was so like Lou.

"I'm so sorry Pony!" Without another word, Lou took off running toward our house, which in all honestly wasn't that far away, but I ended up dozing off anyway. That would no doubt freak Lou out… Oh well, I'm too tired to do anything about that. With that last thought I fell asleep with a smile on my face imagining how Lou would react.

When I woke up it was still dark outside so I assumed I'd only been out for a couple hours. I sat up, having been laid down in my bed, and stretched my arms high above my head letting out a content sigh as I let them fall back down. Looking to the side, I noticed Lou kneeling on the ground, arms crossed in front of him on the bed, head nestled in his arms, fast asleep. Looking at the clock, I noticed it was still only seven o' clock and Lou probably hadn't eaten dinner yet, the worry-wart that he is. Shaking his shoulder, I tried to wake him up.

"Lou, wake up! Common Lou, wakey wakey."

He lifted his head up, eyes still unfocused with sleep. Blinking a few times to clear up his vision, he finally registered what was going on.

"Pony! You're awake!" He leapt up and gave me a huge hug, nearly cutting off my air supply. "I was so so soooo worried Pony! Don't go faintin' like that again, ya' hear me?" He had released me from his hug for a moment to place his hands on my shoulders and look me directly in the eyes so that I knew how serious this was to him.

"I'm sorry Lou, I was really tired and I guess I just fell asleep… I promise to try and not do it again." His serious look turned into his regular ever-present grin, and he was back to hugging me.

"Good!"

"Lou, let go of poor Pone, you're huggin' 'im ta' death." Here we go again…

"Soda! You should be more considerate of Pony! He got beat up, passed out, and still managed to survive! You should be over here hugging him also!" I looked at Lou somewhat bewildered. Did he really think I would die from that small amount of blood loss?

"Lou, really, I think you're over exaggerating a bit. I only fell asleep, I didn't pass out, and it was because I was tired… really, I'm fine Lou. You don't have to worry so much." Lou turned to look at me, missing the smirk that settled on Soda's lips.

"Are you really, really, **really** sure you're okay?" He was holding my shoulders again with that same serious look he had earlier.

"I'm positive! Now, let's go get some dinner before _you_ die of hunger."

"Pony, do you know how silly that is? It would take days, maybe even weeks to die from-" His stomach chose that time to rumble. It was my turn to smirk at him. "Point taken…"

Everything was normal at the Curtis household for the most part after that. Dally, Johnny, Lou, and me had all gone to the Nightly Double the next day, met some Soc girls, and after they had told Dally off for hittin' on them (it was mostly Cherry Valance) they had asked us to come sit with them. Not too long after that Two-Bit decided to make his appearance.

After the movie we had offered to take the two girls home, and on the way to Two-Bit's car, had run into their boyfriends. Not wanting any fights to break out, Cherry and her friend Marcia went back with them. Two-Bit had decided to go home and Johnny was going to go sleep in the lot, not wanting to deal with his parents (not they would notice him anyway). Since Johnny was my buddy, I didn't want to leave him all alone in the lot and since Lou was overprotective, he had figured he'd stick with us. We all ended up falling asleep and by the time we woke up, it was really late. Knowing how Darry could be with curfews, and knowing we had missed ours, Lou and I high-tailed it out of there with a quick see ya later to Johnny. We arrived at our house, peeking in the window to see Darry sitting there reading the newspaper under the lamp. Thinking maybe we could sneak in, I opened the door quietly. Unfortunately, before I could get two steps in the door, Darry was up from his seat, arms crossed, and standing right in front of me; Soda was not far behind.

"Where the heck have you been? Do you know what time it is?" He was madder than I'd seen him in a long time, I gulped, this was not going to be pretty… I shook my head as an answer to his question, not having summoned enough courage yet to speak.

"Well, it's two in the morning, kiddo. Another hour and I would have had the police out after you. Where were you, Ponyboy, Lou?"-his voice was rising-"Where in the almighty universe were you two?"

It was a stupid excuse and I knew it, but it was the truth… a truth Darry was not going to like. "I- we… we fell asleep in the lot with Johnny…" His eyes narrowed in anger. His words were sharp and like a dagger.

"You what?" He was shouting now, unable to hold back even a sliver of his anger. Soda, who had seemed somewhat dazed from waking up from his nap, finally gained some clarity.

"Hey Ponyboy, Lou," his voice was still heavily laced with sleep, "where ya' been?"

I completely ignored him, thinking it wiser to answer Darry first.

"I didn't mean to." I tried pleading with him, hoping he'd give Lou and I a little slack. "I was talking with Johnny and we both dozed off…"

"I reckon it never occurred to you that your brothers might be worrying their heads off and afraid to call the police because something like that could get you three thrown in a boys' home so quick it'd make your head spin. And you two were asleep in the lot? Ponyboy, what on earth is the matter with you? Can't you use your head? You haven't even got a coat on. That goes for you too Lou, why didn't you at least come home first to tell us where you two were going?"

My own frustration was rising… it's not Lou's fault, it's mine! Lou doesn't deserve to be yelled at like that. "I said I didn't mean to! And it's my fault, I wanted to go to the lot with Johnny and Lou came with me to make sure I didn't get hurt. He was just being a good brother!" My eyes were tearing up and I didn't know how much longer I'd be able to hold the tears back.

"I didn't mean to!" Darry was back to shouting again. I was very close to shaking. "I didn't think! I forgot! That's all I hear out of you! Can't you think of anything?"

"Darry…" Soda and Lou spoke at the same time, causing Darry to turn his anger to them. Before they could utter another word, Darry went off on them.

"You two keep your traps shut! I'm sick and tired of hearin' you two stick up for him!"

He should never yell at them. Nobody should ever holler at my brothers. So I did the only thing I could do; turn my fear into anger. "You don't yell at them! They've done nothing wrong! You have absolutely no right to-" My shouting was cut off as Darry's hand made contact with my face, the force was strong enough to slam me against the door.

It was suddenly deathly quiet. We all had frozen. Soda was wide-eyed. Darry was looking at the palm of his hand where it had turned red. Lou was shaking, whether from rage or fear, I couldn't tell, and his eyes were tearing up nearly as bad as mine had just a few moments ago. Darry looked back at me, his eyes were huge.

"Ponyboy…"

I turned and ran out the door and down the street as fast as I could hearing Darry's shout of "I didn't mean to!" before I could hear Lou's voice join the shouting. He was angry. I pretended I couldn't hear them and continued to run to the lot.

"Johnny?"

By then I was shaking something awful, tears heavily streaming down my cheeks.

"Pony? What's wrong? You're scarin' me Pony, what happened?"

"It was so scary Johnny! Darry was shouting, he was really angry, I ended up shouting back at him when he yelled at Soda and Lou, then he hit me! We're running away Johnny, come on, I don't want to stay here no longer!" Johnny pulled me into a tight hug.

"Calm down Pony! It's gonna be okay. Think rationally here Pony, you still got Soda and Lou at home who care very much for you, and although right now it may not seem like it, Darry cares very much for you too. You can't just up and leave 'em, not only would _they_ miss you, but once you finally calmed down and had realized what you had done, you'd miss them too." My shaking had stopped and my tears had nearly subsided.

"Okay, lets walk to the park and back, maybe I'll have cooled off by then…" I stuffed my hands in my pockets and walked off towards the park, Johnny following.

When we arrived at the park, we noticed a blue mustang was trailing us. Johnny looked over his shoulder.

"Wanna run for it?" I shook my head.

"Nah, it's too late. Plus they got a car, they'd definitely catch us." Both of our heads snapped around when we heard feet pounding on the slightly damp grass. There was only one person I knew who was that tall and slender.

"Lou! What are doing?!" Finally reaching us, Lou bent down, hands on his knees, panting heavily. He was never much of a long distance runner.

"I… came to… take ya' home." He managed to speak between gasps for air.

"Ah shoot, Lou. You didn't have ta' run all the way out here to get me! I would've come home after I cooled my head off, you know that…" He smiled at me.

"Ya ya, I know. But I got worried and decided I'd make sure you were alright. Good thing I did, though, looks like we have some uninvited guests." I nodded in agreement, turning to where our 'guests' were slowly approaching, as if tempting us to run, knowing we're out numbered and have no chance of escaping. Even if we were to get a head-start, they'd jump in their car, which I have no doubt is still running just in case that _does_ happen, and would be caught up with us before we could make it half a block away. We could always split up, that way at least one of us would make it home to get help, but that one that would be left would be me since I can run the fastest and longest, and I know for a fact Lou wouldn't agree to that. So, we did about the only thing we could do, get ready to fight. When they finally stopped, they were only a few feet away from us. It was Randy and Bob and three other Socs.

"Hey, whatta ya know?" Bob said a little unsteadily, "here's the little greasers that picked up our girls. Hey, greasers."

"You're outta your territory," Lou warned in a low voice, sounding much like Darry. "you'd better watch it."

Randy swore at us and they all stepped closer. Bob was eyeing Johnny, recognizing him as the greaser they had beat up some weeks ago. "Nup, pal, yer the ones who'd better watch it. Next time you want a broad, pick up your own kind - dirt."

I was infuriated, hating them enough right now to lose the cool I had been trying so hard to get back after Darry had hit me.

"You know what a greaser is?" Bob asked. "White trash with long hair."

My face was red with anger, my fists balled up tight next to my sides. I could feel both Johnny and Lou tense up next to me, they're eyes an inferno of rage. I've been cussed out and sworn at, but nothing ever hit me like that one statement did.

"You know what a Soc is?" My voice was shaking with repressed rage. "White trash with Mustangs and madras." And then, because I couldn't think of anything bad enough to call them, I spit at them.

Bob shook his head, smiling slowly. "You could use a bath greaser. And a good working over. And we've got all night to do it. Give the kid a bath, David!"

I ducked just in time to avoid David's grasp, allowing Lou to take on David. I tried to run for it, but another Soc caught my arm and twisted it behind my back making me let out a small scream, which effectively distracted Lou from his fight, causing him to take a nasty right hook, knocking him to the ground. I couldn't see who Johnny was fighting, my head was shoved in the water and I was close to drowning. I fought back, but the Soc had a strong grip on the back of my neck and I was forced to hold my breath. My mind was getting fuzzy, blackness lapping at the edges of my vision, slowly creeping in. My body was limp, focusing all my energy into staying alive. My lungs were burning with the need for oxygen; I wasn't going to be able to last much longer.

The next thing I knew I was laying on the pavement beside the fountain, coughing water and gasping. I lay there weakly, breathing in air and spitting out water. I barely registered Lou and Johnny next to me, both panting heavily.

After we all had calmed down a bit, caught our breaths, and finally registered our surroundings. I saw Bob laying less than a foot away, unmoving, a pool of red that spread out from under him. I let out a gasp. Johnny, seeing my horrified look, started to ramble.

"I-I killed him… He was gonna drown you Pony! I had to do something…" Johnny was shaking. Lou, being the most composed of us, went over to comfort Johnny.

"It's okay Johnny, it's gonna be okay. We're gonna make it out of this. Now think, what do we need?" Johnny looked up at him, stunned, still sitting on the ground, and nodded, his shaking slowly dissipating.

"We need money, a gun, and a plan."

"Dally." We all spoke at once, having had the same train of thought. Lou nodded his approval.

"Alright, Johnny, Pony, you go find Dally and stay there. I'll go tell Darry and Soda what happened (we don't want a repeat of tonight, now do we?), and I'll come find you. I think Dally said something about crashing at Buck's place. Be quick about it and for goodness sakes Pony, please don't freeze to death!" Without another word, Lou took off running to our house and Johnny and I started toward Buck's.

It wasn't too long before Johnny and I were on Buck's front porch asking for Dally. It took a little convincing to get Buck to go get him, but eventually he did. Dally came out with only his pants on, hair messy, and let out a giant yawn. We had explained all that had happened, and Dally ushered us in quickly, giving me some dry clothes. He had told us to take the train to Windrixville. It would be the first stop, and then from there to head to Jay Mountain, but to make sure that once we got our supplies and got in the church, to not dare poke our heads outside unit he arrived and told us that things had calmed down. As soon as we were heading out from the house, Lou came running up to us, telling us he'd follow us, and to just explain on the way.

Before we had even made it to the train station, we had retold all of Dally's instructions to Lou, and he had volunteered to get the supplies once we arrived. When we reached the train station, we found an open box car and jumped in, hidden from view in the darkness. Johnny and I had fallen asleep shortly after the train started, Lou stayed awake to make sure we didn't miss our stop.

What seemed like only a few minutes to me must have been at least an hour or two for Lou. I was only half awake when Lou told us to get off the train. Lou sent Johnny and I off to find directions to the church and told us to go ahead and wait in the church for him, that he'd go buy the supplies and would find directions while in town. We nodded and set off to find Jay Mountain.

Those days spent in that old creaky abandoned church were the longest days in my life! It was baloney sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Lou had bought some candy bars, but they were quickly eaten in the first couple days. Johnny had suggested that one of us go back out to the store to buy a pair of shears and some bleach, but Lou protested with the fact that since they're not to leave the church that no one would see them anyway…I think he just didn't want to lose his red highlights. Not that I was complaining, I didn't want to mess up my tuff hair, it was fine the way it was! To pass the time, I read the copy of Gone With the Wind that Lou had picked up at the store and aloud to Lou and Johnny.

On our fifth day there, Dally finally came to pick us up. He took us to Dairy Queen for some much needed food that was **not** in the form of a baloney sandwich… We had gone back to the church after that only to find it was on fire, a crowd around it, parents shouting in fear for their kids who were trapped inside. Without thinking (as I seem to do so often), I jumped out of Dally's (Buck's) car and ran toward the church, Lou and Johnny following, Dally was still in the car, shouting at us to not go in the church. We ended up saving all the kids, but Johnny had got hurt real bad, a piece of burning lumber having fallen on his back and the floor collapsing underneath him. Dally was the one who had jumped in to save Johnny. Lou and I had got out relatively unhurt, just a few minor burns and scratches. The paramedics had shown up sometime during that whole event, but I don't quite remember when because before Dally had ran to get Johnny he had hit me hard on the back and I went out like a light. All I know is they dragged us four to the hospital where Soda and Darry had shown up. As soon as I had seen them I had ran and hugged them hard, telling Darry I was sorry. We all went home soon after that. Not having enough energy to stay awake much longer, I fell asleep in Darry's truck on the way back.

I woke up first, so I had cooked, or at least had tried, because Two-Bit decided it'd be great fun to pick me up and swirl me around, causing the eggs I had been cooking to leap from the pan. The rumble with the Socs was tonight, my mind mostly on that than anything else. I hadn't been feeling so well since the fire, but I had tried real hard to not let it show. After all, if Lou or Darry caught wind of it, they'd have me locked up in my room tonight before I could even protest.

Two-Bit and I had gone to visit Johnny and Dally before going over to Tasty Freeze to buy Cokes and rest up before we met up with the gang at my house for the rumble. While we were at the Tasty Freeze, we ran into Randy and his gang… well more like they followed us there in their car, and demanded I speak with Randy. Randy had told me that he was not going to the rumble tonight and that even though the Socs are supposed to be better than the Greaser's, that he didn't think he could've done what Johnny, Lou, Dally, and I had. Risk his life for some little kids. I had told him otherwise. He didn't say much else besides that, and I was free to go. I went back to Two-Bit after that, saving the poor Socs that were suffering his wit.

We only had about 20 minutes before the rumble now and all of the gang was gathering at the Curtis house. Once everyone showed up, we headed out to the rumble. We were all doing acrobatics down our porch steps and onto the street. Everyone was pumped and ready to kick some Soc butt. I was excited too, but even after taking some medicine, I was still sick, so I lacked the same amount of energy everyone else had. When we had arrived though, I momentarily forgot how unwell I was feeling as my adrenaline started pumping, shoving it to the side. We had chosen Darry to go up and start the fight, being as buff as he was. In my opinion, Lou was a better choice. He towered over everybody here, and what he lacked in bulk, he made up for in height. The rumble didn't start for a while, it was a stare-off between Darry and his old friend Paul… that was until Dally came running, shouting how it wasn't a rumble until he had shown up. The commotion effectively distracted Darry, Paul took this chance to give Darry a powerful right hook, knocking him back a few inches; it wasn't very effective, all it did was ignite Darry's anger. Quickly looking around, I noticed I was one of the smallest ones there, so I went to help Dally, jumping on the Socs back that he had taken on. The Soc had put up a real fight, almost knocking me off and defending himself against Dally at the same time. It didn't last long though, because another Soc had come to assist his comrade. Before I could blink, I was on the ground and everything went black. I guess I should have stayed home.

I walked down the cold, dimly lit street; Darry, Soda, and the gang were walking with me. I had given them all big scare during the rumble...

During one of the fights, I got knocked real bad on the head, took me out cold. What's worse was, while I was lying there, the fights around me continued, getting me all covered with everyone else's blood... Not a pretty sight, ya? When Lou found me, he didn't even bother to check my pulse, just went straight into hysterics, yelling for Soda and Darry before collapsing onto his knees crying. Since I really couldn't remember much that'd happened, the gang filled in the details when I woke up. Apparently, as soon as the ambulance got there, Lou took off running towards the park, not wanting to confirm what he thought he'd already known. Besides a minor concussion, I got off pretty easy, just some nicks and scratches. There will definitely be a ton of bruises. Really, I was in the best shape out of all of us (minus the fact I was sick), having been lying on the ground half the time. While we were at the hospital, Johnny had passed away. Dally had taken it very badly, but we were all there to help calm him down. He was hurt, we all were. Not only physically, but emotionally too. And that brings us to where we are now, roaming the streets, searching for Lou. Two-bit was just about to open his mouth to say something when we heard sirens. Getting a sinking feeling, I knew something bad was going to happen...wherever those sirens were going I needed to get there fast. Without so much as a 'follow me guys', or 'try to keep up', I took off sprinting as fast as my legs would allow. As I grew closer to the sirens, they became louder, and a figure started to come into view. That figure was none other than Lou. Pushing past my limit, I sped up as I saw Lou start to slow down and reach for his pocket. I knew what was in there, and unloaded or not, the cops would shoot him without hesitation. After all, to them, we were just 'hoods'. Reaching Lou just a few seconds after he had successfully pulled out Dally's unloaded heater (taken from Dally when he got put into the hospital) I jumped in front of him, back to the police, before anyone could realize it, it was too late, 5 shots rang out, jerking my thin body with each impact, I had grown sort of frail after all the days spent in that abandoned church. Lou stared down at me in shock as my legs finally gave out and I collapsed into his arms, bringing us both to the ground. I smiled up at Lou, gently cupping his face to make sure he was looking me in the eyes when I spoke to him.

"Pony..." He let out a strangled sob as he began to shake.

"Shhh. It's not your fault Lou, this was my choice, please don't blame yourself..." By then I could hear the pounding of feet and could only assume that the gang had finally caught up. I wish that I could hold on longer, give them all a proper goodbye...

After barley whispering out my parting words, I let my eyes slip close with an accepting smile on my face, finally giving in to the darkness that had been slowly blurring my vision. How ironic, less than thirty minutes before, one of my best friends had died, telling me to 'stay gold'. Now, here I was, dying. If I had enough strength left to chuckle, I would have. I guess Robert Frost was right.

"Nothing gold can stay."

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I think this is my longest story EVER! It's about 15 and a half pages long, and 6,476 words! X3 I was so proud of myself for writing this much! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this, and please drop a review!


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